State denies Montgomery County’s request for snow-day waiver

WASHINGTON — The superintendent of Maryland public schools has denied Montgomery County Public School’s request for a waiver from the requirement to make up snow days, according to a statement from the school system.

The county’s schools are required to have 180 days of instruction; they’ve been closed 10 days this school year because of bad weather. The calendar has four extra days built into it, so the district is on track to have 174 days of instruction — six days less than the requirement.

On March 25, the state Board of Education allowed Superintendent Lillian Lowery to grant waivers allowing school districts to have as few as 175 days this year. Montgomery County applied to have five snow days waived and one made up, leaving students with 175 days, according to the statement.

Lowery denied the request, telling superintendent Joshua Starr in a letter that “[y]our request does not demonstrate an effort to modify the school calendar to make up for lost instructional time.”

Also, she said that Starr could make another request, with fewer waived days.

Starr says in the statement that he will consult with the state board “to consider other options before deciding whether to submit a modified request.”